CSKA removed the portrait of Mario Fernandez, who joined Zenit, at his stadium

The Moscow football club CSKA removed at its stadium “VEB Arena” a portrait depicting its former player Mario Fernandez, who had previously moved to Zenit from St. Petersburg, despite a gentlemen’s agreement with the “soldiers”. It is reported by “Sport-Express”.

Now, instead of the portrait of Mario Fernandez on the walls of the CSKA stadium, there is an image of another former football player of the team, Brazilian Daniel Carvalho.

It is emphasized that the decision to replace the image of Fernandez was made after CSKA fans launched a petition with a corresponding demand.

Interestingly, the story of the replacement of the portrait of Mario Fernandez at the VEB Arena happened the day before the match, just the same CSKA and Zenit, who will play at this stadium on September 3 as part of the meeting of the 7th round of the World Russian Premier League (RPL) .

At the same time, at the CSKA stadium there is another image of Fernandez in the form of graffiti on the facade of the arena.

Previously, the transition of Mario Fernandez to Zenit was reported by Sport-Express. It is noted that the player moved to the club from St. Petersburg from the Brazilian “Internacional” in the status of a free agent. This happened after Zenit bought Fernandez’s contract from a team from Brazil for 360,000 euros. At the same time, CSKA Moscow also planned to return the defender, but did not buy the player from Internacional.

Mario Fernandez played for CSKA from June 2012 to June 2022. After that, he suspended his career. For the “red-blue” defender spent 329 meetings, scored 11 goals and made 47 assists. Together with CSKA, Mario Fernandez won the Russian Championship three times, the Russian Cup once, and the Russian Super Cup twice.

In 2016, the player received a passport of a Russian citizen, and a year later he played the first match for the Russian national team. In 2018, Mario Fernandez, together with the national team, reached the 1/4 finals of the World Championship, which was held in Russia.

In January of this year, the player resumed his playing career and signed a contract with Internacional. He played for the Brazilian club in five meetings and was not marked by effective actions.